UK | Tesco announced plans to launch long-term low-carbon concept farms to help farmers and suppliers reduce emissions and scale innovative approaches in the latest initiative to support the industry’s transition to net zero.
Speaking in a session at the Oxford Farming Conference, Tesco’s Chief Commercial Officer, Ashwin Prasad, will call on the government to set a clear vision for sustainable agriculture, including more significant investment and policy certainty, to enable the industry to drive sustainable economic growth.
At the same time, Tesco will continue to support the industry in implementing clearer sustainability requirements and standards, working with farmers to simplify and standardise data collection, and exploring new models and incentives that could help farmers manage investment risk.
The recommendations were based on a new report produced by Tesco in collaboration with Harper Adams University. The report consulted more than 300 UK farmers on the industry's future sustainability.
The research found that 74 percent of farmers surveyed were concerned about the impact of climate change on their farms, and two-thirds were already seeing the effects.
Three-quarters, however, haven’t been able to implement all the environmental measures they want to due to high upfront costs, the risk of poor financial returns and a lack of policy certainty from the government.
“As the Greenprint report notes, farmers know the importance of tackling climate change - with most reporting, they already see its effect on their farms. Giving farmers the skills and knowledge they need to farm sustainably was one of the drivers for Harper Adams University as we set up the School of Sustainable Food and Farming. The School works with key industry players to boost the skills and knowledge of farmers and others in our food chain as we move towards sustainable Net Zero,” said Harper Adams University Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Lee.
“The successful Tesco Future Farmer programme is a great example of how farmers, retailers and researchers at universities like Harper Adams can all strive together to build a sustainable future. The challenge of moving our food and farming systems towards Net Zero and ensuring food security simultaneously is huge, and we all need to work together to take it on.”
The call to action came as Tesco announced plans with key suppliers for two low-carbon concept farms in its UK supply chain. The multi-year commitment from Tesco will see the trailblazing farms trial new technologies and share learnings to scale the adoption of sustainable approaches.
The farms, one in partnership with potato supplier Branston and one with livestock processor ABP, will explore current and future innovations, such as low-carbon fertilisers, alternative fuels, state-of-the-art cold storage, and carbon removal techniques. They will also explore innovations in other areas, including soil health, grazing management, biodiversity assessment and management, and genetic improvements.
The farms will aim to provide farmers in Tesco’s supply network with a practical demonstration of a route to net zero, helping pave the way to more low-carbon farms in the future.
“As the biggest customer of UK agriculture, we know providing our customers with healthy, affordable and sustainable food wouldn’t be possible without the expertise and dedication of our farmers across the country. However, the industry needs more certainty and support to continue to thrive in the future. Many of the solutions we need exist today, but the government and the food industry need to ensure we have the right incentives in place so that UK agriculture can reach its potential as a driver of both sustainability and economic growth,” said Prasad.”
“We’ve already been working with farmers to help them reduce their environmental impact, from incentivising farmers to measure their carbon footprint to rolling out innovations like low-carbon fertilisers. We’re pleased to be building on this further with our new low-carbon test farms, working with some of our supplier partners to pioneer new approaches to understand the most effective ways to reduce emissions and environmental impact while continuing to bring the British public great quality food, at a price they can afford.”
The new farms were the latest in a range of commitments from Tesco to support farmers across the supply chain. This followed its partnership with Lloyd’s Banking Group, the Soil Association, and other retailers earlier this week to help farmers reduce emissions on farms.
They build on the work of Tesco’s long-running sustainable farming groups (SFGs), which convene industry representatives, share knowledge between farmers, suppliers and Tesco colleagues, and trial innovations to help reduce on-farm emissions and protect biodiversity.
Tesco’s SFGs include groups dedicated to its milk, cheese, beef, lamb, and potato farmers. They offer members fair and transparent pricing structures and support emissions reduction through carbon footprinting for lamb, beef, and dairy group members.
